There is a peculiar village outside of Chiang Mai called “House of Two gods”. At first I wondered if there had been some kind of mythical battle in the past between two rival gods … a kind of Buddhist version of the “Battle of the Titans”. But it turns out there is a temple in this village that has two Buddhist images made out of different metals (usually there is just one main Buddhist image in a temple). As I reflected more, it reminded me of the tendency of the Thai to absorb and adopt whatever god they think can be of help. That is the reason why many Thai wonder if you can simply add Jesus to their pantheon of dieties. The exclusive nature of our faith (John 14:6) often ends up being a stumbling block to a Thai world view. To counter this, I often use a series of Thai proverbs to help them see why it is necessary to make a firm decision about who you follow as your master in life: 1) Step each foot into two canoes (chances are you’ll split right down the middle); 2)Love the older sister, but forfeit the younger sister (you may fall in love with the older one, but forfeit the cuter younger one); 3)Catch a fish with two hands (trying to do two things simultaneously).

In each case, the lesson is that one must make a clear choice in life, you cannot vacillate. Lot was sternly warned by two angels to flee Sodom, but in Genesis 19:16 it says he “hesitated”. Fortunately the angels pulled his whole family out of the city and even with that, Lot’s wife hesitated again and turned to a pillar of salt. Pray that our message to the Thai will be clear enough that they can easily see the uniqueness of the gospel and be able to make the correct and eternal choice of Jesus.

One day, after several months living in Isaan, I glanced at my feet and to my surprise, noticed a strange new growth from the sides of each one of my feet (I will spare you the picture!). At first glance, I became quite concerned that these were either massive plantar warts, an infection, or...

God told the Israelites, “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt” (Exodus 23:9). In the same spirit, Jesus tells us, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39). Speaking for Western Christians, I don’t think most of us fully grasp the implications of...

In 1975 I was a student at Dallas Theological Seminary. Dr. Dan Bacon (DTS grad and OMF director at the time) was the chapel speaker and asked us students whether we were praying for any specific missionary. At the end of his talk, Dr. Bacon handed out a little blue commitment card which I filled...

Pastor Brasit at the end of his Sunday sermon asked the music group to play a song and invited the church leaders and missionaries to come up to the front. Having only been at the church for a month, we step out hesitantly and Pastor Brasit then urges members of the congregation who have specific...

Is it possible to share the Gospel by serving buckets of ice to guests eating at a funeral? A couple of weeks ago, the mother of one of the leaders at the local church died. As is usual in Thailand, the family held a funeral over one week where the mother’s body was in a...

I piled my family of five kids into our truck and set off to preach at a Thai church on a Sunday morning. On the way there, my wife saw a guy selling watermelons on the roadside. She asked me to stop and she bought five good-looking watermelons. I thought, “This is more than enough...

The Christian Church has been growing in Thailand at just under 6% for the past 65 years. Every 13 years the church is twice as big. What are factors in this growth? As OMF Thailand field director, I see 5 notable factors from a historical perspective. First, there was a big increase in the number...

Sitting in a Tennesse Starbucks, a Thai girl called Tina was asked why she was wearing a Buddhist amulet around her neck. For the first time in her life, she looked inside herself for a reason and realized that she did not have one. The question came from a young woman who had just moved...

A while ago we were watching a movie about Australia. After a while we decided to put on the subtitles as English is our second language and the strong accent was too hard for us to understand. My husband went to watch a movie at the cinema the other day: unfortunately no subtitles, just Thai...